As the Tour de France enters its final weekend, I’ve been thinking a lot about risk and reward. Whenever you’re facing a dominating rider like Chris Froome, the storyline revolves around the risks competitors must take in an attempt to put him in difficulty. But even outside the race for the yellow jersey, risk-and-reward has …
What a fascinating second week of racing at the 2013 Tour de France! After a hectic first week, this week featured a controversial knock-down in a sprint finish (an accident, in my view), the first long individual time trial (Holy Froome!), and an epic crosswind battle that exposed vulnerabilities in Chris Froome’s Sky team. One …
As I watched the Stage 4 team time trial unfold earlier this week, the story of Cannondale rider Ted King struck a chord with me. Riding injured and alone, the young American fought his way to the finish line, but arrived seven seconds too late. His finishing time was outside the official 25% time cut …
As the Centennial Tour de France gets underway this week, I’m happy to say that I’ll be contributing weekly articles to www.roadbikeaction.com. To give you a sense for what you can expect, I’m not going to be regurgitating news and stage results. There are plenty of places to get that. What’s more interesting to me …
For the second June in a row, the biggest news out of Colorado Springs is a major wildfire. Last June it was the Waldo Canyon Fire that blackened 18,000 acres, destroyed 346 homes, and killed two people. This week it’s been the Black Forest Fire, which as of Friday afternoon has burned 15,700 acres, destroyed …
The night before embarking on our 200+ mile journey through the flint hills of Kansas, defending Dirty Kanza 200 champion Rebecca Rusch addressed her fellow CTS Athletes and told us all, “Whether you’re the first or last tomorrow, you will absolutely be a changed person by the end.” The Queen of Pain knows what she’s …
If you’re reading this during the day on June 1, I’m most likely somewhere in the middle of nowhere in Kansas. More precisely, I’m probably (hopefully) still riding on a gravel road outside Emporia, KS with a thousand or so other intrepid souls for the Dirty Kanza 200. The question I’ve gotten many, many times …
Endurance sports are often looked at as individual pursuits, you against yourself as much as you against the competition. There is some truth to that, and some appeal as well. Often, my training time is also the only period during the day when I really get to be by myself. But when it comes to …
Riding the Amgen Tour of California Race Experience with Team CTS this past week has been a blast, but that heat in first few days felt like riding on the surface of the sun. I’m really proud of all the riders and coaches for toughing it out, and even more so for being smart. Fitness …
For the first few months of the year, it’s not too difficult for athletes to make and see significant progress with their fitness. After losing fitness through the fall and winter, simply increasing weekly training hours is enough to re-establish a moderate level of fitness. But now it’s May, and many athletes are reaching what …